Casitas. water level

[Kelly Ripa]

Did I hear right ...No water being diverted this year because the fish screens aren't working correctly. I was told these screens were to keep the the rare(non existent) steel head from coming upstream any further? Really? Come on folks, last year it was bird nests this year because they have not maintained the water shed we have to pray that water from the sky will fill the lake because these *** hats lost a lawsuit to some college students on summer break giving non existent fish more rights than people. I went over to the lake and the water had been going over the little bridge from the creek in Santa Anna but I can piss harder than what was coming in in that cement diversion. It had been running maybe three feet high by the wet mark showing prior levels in the night but now....zipadee do da......No wonder the river is 4 1/2 feet deep and ripping by my house it's all going to the ocean I won't miss this f#####g place when I can retire in Oct. of 2023 for sure....This California native can no longer recognize this State. I don't agree with any of the directions it has taken and/or are about to so Hasta la bye bye to SoCal....hello real world. What a cluster ####

[Wrknap]

Bueno adiós mi amigo. Espero que usted encuentre su felicidad.

[MikeR]

Lake Casitas is currently at 32.1% up from a low of 30.1%. There has been a gain of about 3' since December with CMWD taking every legal opportunity to capture water since the season began. The creeks are running and there will be a little more gain from the subsequent run-off for the next few days.

The Casitas Municipal Water district has been much more transparent about their actions and attempts to capture water since the shake up of the board of trustees during the last election and the resignations of general manager Steve Wickstrum and Public Relations manager Ron Merckling .

This latest storm posed the greatest opportunity to capture water in almost 2 years and although the diversion was opened and utilized during the storm yesterday, it was shut down for the same problem that has plagued the design of the diversion system, debris flow and the inability to effectively clear the screens leading into the diversion canal. It was later reopened but the we lost another huge opportunity AGAIN!

The design of the screens for the diversion in itself is flawed and is contributing to the problem and needs to be fixed. CMWD has failed to find a solution to the constant clogging of the screens due to the debris flow. It is the Achilles heel of the operation. I believe CMWD has their hands tied and have to get approval from the Federal agencies involved to make any changes to the diversions and they may be in the process of doing that. In the meantime another rainy season may just come and go and more opportunities will be lost.

I get that enough water needs to flow for the steelhead that used to run the river many years ago to possibly make a comeback, but this continuing drought and the growth and population explosion in Ojai and the Ventura area without thought to the water needs is what has dried this river up.

I've attached a couple of pictures of the Ventura River during the height of the flow yesterday. In the top pic you can see Casitas and it's eastern shoreline in the top right corner. The pictures were taken by my designer Alan Colvin during his day off yesterday. You can see by the amount of water flowing that if it were to be reduced by half it could still very easily have enough water flow to sustain the steelhead. Why not divert more? Why should it just flow into the sea when half the volume of flow would sustain any amount of steelhead attempting to migrate upstream.

Common sense tells me that with the lake under 33%, it is at a critical level and current diversion policy should be addressed legally by the CMWD, the city of Ojai and Ventura. The time has come to challenge the diversion policy and lower the threshold of river volume necessary to allow the diversion to operate. NOAA and any other agencies, Federal, State, or out of state environmentalist interests responsible for implementing this disastrous policy should be brought to task to correct the slow death of Lake Casitas a once world class bass fishery!

Mike Reese

[MikeR]

The diversion is still running this morning. See the link to the CMWD FB page and the latest video posted below.

https://www.facebook.com/fbsitecasitasm ... 702651724/

[mark poulson]

The river should have plenty of water without taking it from Casitas' watershed, since Castaic is required by law to release any rain water it receives from it's watershed.

[WRB]

Casitas watershed comes in via Coyote creek. The Ventura river is the lakes major source of water fed by the diversion dam created for that purpose and worked for over 60 years. This is a cluster ---- as Kelly rightfully stated. 3' of water captured when the river is overflowing is beyond comprehension. Anyone thinking they can communicate with fanatical environmentalist is kidding themselves, this is just sickening.
Tom

[Kelly Ripa]

The diversion is going full steam now. The wife and I took pictures of where the water goes by Santa Anna Road yesterday and it was 4 and a half feet according to the numbers painted on the cement island. It was bank to bank under the bridge yesterday and the flow rate was some serious cfm.Today barely a foot. I realize now it was from the on/off of the diversion system in action right in front of my eyes. I live on Rice Rd.with the coservation area barely 200 feet away. and I could hear it haul'n along from the minute I walked out my front door. To hear that the Casitas board has not found a solution to an already in place design flaw is no mystery as they(the board) displayed a totally closed ear to anything that smacked of science presented to them before they shut the place down over the quagga issue. I understand that the board is constrained by federal law what better time to push back on it than now? Obvious that we've mismanaged what seems so simple. Hopefully we can get some thinkers and doers on that board....If I was interested in trying to give the rare steelhead a footing I would think that the creation of areas that could pool the water rather than runoff at full bore until gone would be a more inviting habitat but then that's why they are more than rare I guess. .

It's a heck of a good start either way with 12 inches since this December as last year I had about 1.5 inches by this date last year. With zero rain through all of last December's Thomas fire until the 9th of January when Monticito got clocked with 3 inches.

[mark poulson]

Kelly, you will never get scientifically sound decisions from an elected water board, only what is politically correct, and won't reflect badly on the member as they run for office again.

[Kelly Ripa]

Mark, if you think a Republican born and raised in California has any illusions in his mind as to what his elected officials in this state have to offer you are sadly mistaken. Remember this my friend. If my vote meant anything they would have already taken it away from me. I will get out of SoCal before the place turns upside down and sinks into the swamp . I promise where ever I land to not bring SoCal Californian politics with me...I just want to catch a few more before I go for good to the best fishing for all eternity.

I notice you got out...is it hard to get the SoCal Stench off? I'll probably have to burn all non essentials. If I have to paint my face blue and carry a big sword to join up with the Locals of NoCal so be it....Ahhh the Irish you gotta love em

[WRB]

The Casitas dam wasn't biult to be a sanctuary zone, it was built to be a water storage reservior for the folks living in Ventura. It's primary function is to store water, public recreation helps to fund it's operation.
The folks running the board now believe the dam is in the way for steelhead migration up the Ventura River and into Coyote creek, spending millions of dollars biulding a fish ladder. What they fail to realize is Point Conception is the very southern edge boundary for wild steelhead to survive do rivers south of that boundary are not free flowing year around and never were. environmentalist trying to re establish a species of fish that were always were marginal before modern man developed SoCal is a losing and very expensive, the cost being our precious water supply that everyone relies on to survive here.
The board should be fired for incompetence not to insure the lake is kept at maximum pool size during the wet cycles in lieu of maintaining minimum pool size to protect a non existent species of steelhead and non endangered migratory common species of birds.
This shouldn't be a political issue, it should be a legal issue.
Tom

[mark poulson]

The Casitas dam wasn't biult to be a sanctuary zone, it was built to be a water storage reservior for the folks living in Ventura. It's primary function is to store water, public recreation helps to fund it's operation.
The folks running the board now believe the dam is in the way for steelhead migration up the Ventura River and into Coyote creek, spending millions of dollars biulding a fish ladder. What they fail to realize is Point Conception is the very southern edge boundary for wild steelhead to survive do rivers south of that boundary are not free flowing year around and never were. environmentalist trying to re establish a species of fish that were always were marginal before modern man developed SoCal is a losing and very expensive, the cost being our precious water supply that everyone relies on to survive here.
The board should be fired for incompetence not to insure the lake is kept at maximum pool size during the wet cycles in lieu of maintaining minimum pool size to protect a non existent species of steelhead and non endangered migratory common species of birds.
This shouldn't be a political issue, it should be a legal issue.
Tom

I agree!

[mark poulson]

Mark, if you think a Republican born and raised in California has any illusions in his mind as to what his elected officials in this state have to offer you are sadly mistaken. Remember this my friend. If my vote meant anything they would have already taken it away from me. I will get out of SoCal before the place turns upside down and sinks into the swamp . I promise where ever I land to not bring SoCal Californian politics with me...I just want to catch a few more before I go for good to the best fishing for all eternity.

I notice you got out...is it hard to get the SoCal Stench off? I'll probably have to burn all non essentials. If I have to paint my face blue and carry a big sword to join up with the Locals of NoCal so be it....Ahhh the Irish you gotta love em

Kelly, the first day I drove up here, and it looked like Venice, where I grew up back in the 50s, I knew I was "home". Open farming areas, junk yards, boat yards, vacant lots between houses, and people who drove without frustration.
I miss my friends, but I do not miss Los Angeles. Not one single day.

[Jboutfishn]

The Casitas dam wasn't biult to be a sanctuary zone, it was built to be a water storage reservior for the folks living in Ventura. It's primary function is to store water, public recreation helps to fund it's operation.
The folks running the board now believe the dam is in the way for steelhead migration up the Ventura River and into Coyote creek, spending millions of dollars biulding a fish ladder. What they fail to realize is Point Conception is the very southern edge boundary for wild steelhead to survive do rivers south of that boundary are not free flowing year around and never were. environmentalist trying to re establish a species of fish that were always were marginal before modern man developed SoCal is a losing and very expensive, the cost being our precious water supply that everyone relies on to survive here.
The board should be fired for incompetence not to insure the lake is kept at maximum pool size during the wet cycles in lieu of maintaining minimum pool size to protect a non existent species of steelhead and non endangered migratory common species of birds.
This shouldn't be a political issue, it should be a legal issue.
Tom

In the early 80's I remember my father catching steelhead in Malibu Creek.

[Kelly Ripa]

Mark,
I grew up in the Bay area in the 50's through the 70's hunting on Grizzly Island fish'n in the mothball fleet and the Bay. Side trips to Clear lake and Barry...Ultimately our family owned a resort on Clear Lake in the early 70's. So I know what I'm missing but because of my occupation I drew a line in the sand when I got this far south as I could not work where I have to listen to a helicopter and a radio station to get down the street. I have toughed out every way they have tried to keep me out of this mud puddle and am anxious to get out of Dodge.I just have to live where the work is just a little longer

I started my trade as a master machinist/tool and die maker back in 78 in Paso Robles. A coworker was a Paso native and he showed me pictures of his dad as a child with his grandfather holding salmon they had caught in the river before there was any Naci or San Antonio. I worked on the dock at Naci in that summer to supplement my meager earnings and I personally caught/released a steelhead that year up the river while I was fishing for white bass. Bad enough they put in the dams but what ever nimrod behind a desk thought that white bass would be a good idea probably in a single stroke of the pen decimated the steelhead in that area.

The story I was told was that when Mulholland and whoever planed all of this stuff for SoCal the sportsmen decried it but where placated by being told they would have a world class trout fishery...and they got the Lopez trout farm for the trade. Sounds like politics as usual in California just 100 years ago that's all. That's prolly the most b.s. story retold a zillion times and twisted around just as many but ....I've often wondered how this mess ever passed the smell test in years past.

[WRB]

Private and DFG stocking of wild steelhead (sea run rainbow trout) have occurred since the mid 60's without success. A few juvenile steelhead have been reported over the past 50 years and environmentalist always point out the possibility exist that they can return if the hactuary raised rainbow trout and all other non native fish species were eleminatedand and a wet climate restored. Wet climate that we never had historically south of point Conception.
Lake Casitas should be near full pool if the Ventura River flow is diverted as designed during storms. Let's hope the Ventura River water continues to be diverted the next 3 months to restore lake Casitas.
Tom

[mark poulson]

Kelly,
You clearly know a lot more than I about the more recent history of our fisheries. I was strictly a trout and jetty/surf fishing guy back in the 50s, and didn't even fish for bass until 2000.
I hear your frustration. It goes deep, because you remember what things were like, way back when.

The way things are headed up here, the next year will pretty much decide the fate of the Delta, and the whole San Francisco/Delta ecosystem.
If the Twin Tunnels go through, it's doomed, and will become a salt water estuary all the way up to Franks, if not farther.
Likewise, if the State continues to bomb the water with toxic herbicides, like Roundup and Sonar, there will be nothing left for fish to eat. I think they are also trying to eliminate bass habitat, because it's easier to blame bass for salmon numbers declining.
But bass and stripers aren't what's causing the salmon decline. It's lack of water.
Before the CA Aqueduct was built, and the Delta water began to be shipped south for the farmers and SoCal population, the ecosystem was fine, with great salmon runs, even though there were stripers and black bass present.
There is a clear correlation between water shipments and salmon decline.

Water is the gold here. The San Joaquin farmers want it, and they have the big bucks to donate to/buy politicians, so it will be a close contest to see if the Tunnels go through.
And the State is using invasive aquatic plants as an excuse to remove all the vegetation that slows the movement of water to the pumps at the Clifton Forebay, so, even if the Tunnels don't go through, without a challenge from Restore the Delta and other environmental groups, the ecosystem will continue to decline.

I just hope there is a decent Delta fishery to return to when you finally get to pull the plug, if you decide to move back north.

[mark poulson]

The Casitas dam wasn't biult to be a sanctuary zone, it was built to be a water storage reservior for the folks living in Ventura. It's primary function is to store water, public recreation helps to fund it's operation.
The folks running the board now believe the dam is in the way for steelhead migration up the Ventura River and into Coyote creek, spending millions of dollars biulding a fish ladder. What they fail to realize is Point Conception is the very southern edge boundary for wild steelhead to survive do rivers south of that boundary are not free flowing year around and never were. environmentalist trying to re establish a species of fish that were always were marginal before modern man developed SoCal is a losing and very expensive, the cost being our precious water supply that everyone relies on to survive here.
The board should be fired for incompetence not to insure the lake is kept at maximum pool size during the wet cycles in lieu of maintaining minimum pool size to protect a non existent species of steelhead and non endangered migratory common species of birds.
This shouldn't be a political issue, it should be a legal issue.
Tom

In the early 80's I remember my father catching steelhead in Malibu Creek.

I worked with a WW2 vet and Santa Monica native who said he caught steelhead there, too.

[mark poulson]

Tom,
Somehow the pendulum got swung so far to the restore the environment side of the whole environmental question that those kind of paper-smart proposals actually got implemented, without any regard to the actual consequences for people who live here now.
But Casitas was built for people, not for steelhead.
With all the agriculture upstream, the Ventura River will never be able to support a breeding population of steelhead. There will just never be enough clean water flow to permit it.
Trying to get steelhead to return to that river is like that guy who was condemned to rolling a boulder up a hill every day, just to have it roll back down at night. Hopeless.
And the whole quagga mussel deal just gave the local politicians an excuse to make Casitas into a semi-private lake. No elected official would ever leave room for being blamed if the mussels get into the Ventura water supply system.
I don't see any hope for significant changes until more people with common sense are elected to the water board.

[WRB]

I agree Mark. I took my boat off Casitas 2 years ago to fish Castaic and the I 5 construction, trucks and traffic reminded me what it was like to fish that lake. I returned to Casitas with it's peacefull environment and easy traffic only to watch them drain the lake. The fishing has been good for me and It's decision time agian, peace and quite or traffic and boom boxes. I am not leaving leaving SoCal it's going to be private lake fishing, expensive but worth it. No more giant bass, Casitas and Castiac are good memories for me now.
Peace,
Tom

[callwakeup]

Lets hope the local lakes are capturing water during this storm.

[Kelly Ripa]

A foot or so in the diversion canal .... gosh those pesky steelhead screens need to be cleaned I'll wager ...HOWEVER: The water from Santa Anna Creek is over the bridge into the campground a bit and the creeks and burned away hillsides are pouring in some water. Heaven knows they have tried to keep the water out but it's flowing in anyway.Let's see today's video of the canal Vs. the river. When you see what is flowing by my house you can only be depressed that it's on it's way to the sea Vs. being put to good use. Cachuma will be the one that really benefits from this type of storm. I heard that they got 1/2 an inch in 3 minutes at Gaviota. I'm close to 17 inches since the beginning of December...Last year about this time maybe 1 1/2. It's going well enough that they won't be able to close it this year. HA Ha

[pete gardner]

Kelly; Thanks' for the update.

[Dave Wilson]

Saturday Mike Reese and I were fishing at Casitas, and you could see the water level was increasing - well, we could see that when the super cell white- out rain and wind conditions ceased! It was kinda crazy weather . They closed the lake as Santa Ana creek flooded the lake road to the launch ramp, and when we left we had to go on a detour out to the 150. As far as the bypass concerns go, I imagine the screens are there to restrict fish eggs and larval fish from entering the canal. This is most a Federal regulation- along with having a fish ladder to begin with. To achieve any changes will take action at the level of NMFS. Casitas is involved in trying to get NMFS to limit water releases downstream, and to increase diversions until the lake is much fuller. The lake is now a mere 2/3 empty...

[Kelly Ripa]

Whatever the reason is. It needs to have been attended to during the $%#%#!! 7 year drought and not at a later date. I vote utter incompetence on the water board for not having found a solution to this as this problem has been known to exist over a decade.If you fished in that 1/2 inch an hour stuff yesterday you might want to seek professional help for you green addiction I'll bet your bilge pumps got a good work out but more importantly...Did ya find em' ??

They are diverting full tilt today and the deluge of water coming in at Santa Anna has tamed and is now under the bridge/road...

[MikeR]

I can remember only one other tournament I fished where it rained so hard. The bilges did run all day, the rain was insane to say the least. Reminded me of some of the rains we had during the past El Nino seasons. The forecast must have been the reason a few teams chose not to fish. We had 12.83 for our best 5 anchored by a 4.6#, with Stan and Ken Vandenberg taking the win with just over 15 pounds with a 5+ kicker. I was just happy to have a limit in those conditions.

There was a huge water gain for the lake with the storms Friday and Saturday and more coming today. We're saturated and we should see runoff from the Casitas watershed for a week or more now. Still far from being full but as of this morning Casitas is at 34.3%, up from 30.1% at the beginning of the season and the bottoming out point. This represents about an 8 foot gain or so since the beginning of the season.

With the deluge on Saturday I believe the consensus is that now most of the debris issues are behind us and diversion levels should be able to be maintained at higher levels.

Mike

[WRB]

As I recall Casitas was full pool 2008/2009 after heavy rains and was the last year I caught ant giant bass there during the 2009 pre spawn. How could things go so bad in 10 years when we have had some decent rainy years the past 3 years? The answer is simple, members on the board don't have the people Ventura's water storage at best interest as a priority.
Visiting my local doctor last Friday he told me he can't get a building permit to add onto his home do to the low water level at lake Casitas, no new construction until the lake is at 50% capacity.
I see today the level is at 34.4%, was 30% in Aug 2018.
What a mess!
Tom

[Stratos278]

Kelly, you will never get scientifically sound decisions from an elected water board, only what is politically correct, and won't reflect badly on the member as they run for office again.

Mark, don't you mean "politically expedient"?

[callwakeup]

..."Visiting my local doctor last Friday he told me he can't get a building permit to add onto his home do to the low water level at lake Casitas, no new construction until the lake is at 50% capacity..."

what the heck-- what does one have to do with another?

[WRB]

..."Visiting my local doctor last Friday he told me he can't get a building permit to add onto his home do to the low water level at lake Casitas, no new construction until the lake is at 50% capacity..."

what the heck-- what does one have to do with another?

The folks on the board are protecting their endangered environment and don't want any new construction of homes adding more urban spawl contaminating thier community.
There has been enough rain to nearly fill lake Casitas the past 3 years if water was deverted from the Ventura River at flood stages into the lake. 2017 high rain fall, water was too turbid from the fire, 2018 the deversion channel had brush and birds nest, 2019 the deversion screens need repair...
Why? Reestablished Steelhaed into the Ventura watershed.
Tom

[mark poulson]

..."Visiting my local doctor last Friday he told me he can't get a building permit to add onto his home do to the low water level at lake Casitas, no new construction until the lake is at 50% capacity..."

what the heck-- what does one have to do with another?

The folks on the board are protecting their endangered environment and don't want any new construction of homes adding more urban spawl contaminating thier community.
There has been enough rain to nearly fill lake Casitas the past 3 years if water was deverted from the Ventura River at flood stages into the lake. 2017 high rain fall, water was too turbid from the fire, 2018 the deversion channel had brush and birds nest, 2019 the deversion screens need repair...
Why? Reestablished Steelhaed into the Ventura watershed.
Tom

We all know how much steelhead love muddy water, and water filled with agricultural runoff.